2 From Cicero Held In Plot To Hire Hit Man

February 28, 1986

Two Cicero men--one described as a crime syndicate foot soldier who previously was convicted of defrauding the City of Chicago of $280,000 during the 1979 snow removal efforts--have been charged with solicitation to commit murder, authorities said Thursday.

Salvatore F. Mucerino, 53, of 3338 S. May St., and Frank Cardascio, 56, of 1338 S. 60th Ct., were arrested Thursday afternoon after they allegedly gave $5,000 in cash to a police informant as payment for a murder that they thought had been carried out, said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state`s attorney`s office.

Mucerino is believed by investigators to be a foot soldier for crime syndicate boss Angelo La Pietra, Howard said.

She declined to identify the intended victim or give the circumstances of how the murder was to be carried out but said the arrests were the result of efforts by the Illinois Department of State Police division of criminal investigations and the state`s attorney`s organized crime unit.

She said that since last Friday Cardascio had several conversations with a police informant in which he asked the informant to commit a murder for Mucerino.

On Friday afternoon, the informant met Mucerino and Cardascio in a parking lot at Cermak Road and Cicero Avenue, where he told them he had killed the victim and accepted $5,000 cash payment from them, Howard said.

Mucerino and Cardascio were arrested a short time later. They were to appear Friday in the Maywood branch of Cook County Circuit Court.